From Mr C. Buttigieg

Reference is made to The Malta Independent on Sunday report of 29 October regarding the sexual activity of boys attending secondary schools.

The report raises once again the issue of Church Schools and the 2006 Health Promotion Unit survey.

For the record, the following clarification is necessary:

The questionnaire was distributed to Church Secondary Schools without prior consultation and approval.

The Church Secretariat for Education called the Health Promotion Unit to discuss the questionnaire that had already been distributed to Church schools.

The HPU suggested the removal of the pages with the objectionable questions in the Maltese and English versions. However, the questions and pages in the questionnaire were numbered. Moreover, the objectionable questions carried over onto two pages, thus requiring the removal of more than one page forming part of the health questions. It was felt that such a move would also have given rise to speculation and gossip among students about the missing questions.

Had the Church Secretariat for Education been consulted before going to print, the Secretariat would have agreed to have the questionnaire printed without those questions in the first place.

Charles Buttigieg

Public Relations Officer

Archbishop’s Curia